Racing to reach the finish line

-Win or lose, kids have fun swimming, biking and running in the Princess City Youth Triathlon.

-Win or lose, kids have fun swimming, biking and running in the Princess City Youth Triathlon.

June 26, 2007|VIRGINIA RANSBOTTOM Tribune Staff Writer

Even after being clipped during an incident with a truck while riding her bicycle, a persistent 11-year-old from Granger finished the Princess City Youth Triathlon with the best overall time for girls at 17.26 minutes. Emily Neice said she was competing in the bicycle course of the race when the incident occurred with a truck that apparently drove around barricades at the Mishawaka Avenue bridge. "Luckily there was a curb right next to me and I was able to put my foot down to keep from falling," Emily said. Emily continued with the race, said volunteer race director Michael Bergin. A police report was made. At only 11, Emily is already a seasoned triathlon veteran. Thursday's win in the swim/bike/run race was her fourth in the past two years. Emily is on a swim team and rides her bicycle 15 miles a day. Her goal is to compete in the triathlon in Hawaii. "It's something I really enjoy and it challenges me to work up to the big ones," she said. The day after the race, Emily still had goose bumps thinking about the truck incident, but that wasn't keeping her from coming back to Summerfest to celebrate with friends. The best overall time for boys went to Charlie Hartman, 14, of Nappanee, clocked at 14.01. Isaac Thompson, 13, of New Carlisle, was right on Hartman's heels, coming in second with a time of 14.10. With the third-best overall time of 15.12 minutes, Grant VanParys, 11, of Granger, took first place in the 11- to 12-year-old division. Grant's brother, Garrett, won the 7- to 8-year-old boy's division with a time of 18.11. "He's following in my trail," said Grant before the brothers celebrated their wins with an elephant ear. Watching her son, Justin, compete in the swimming course for the first time, Christine DeClark, of South Bend, said Justin couldn't sleep at all the night before. "He just learned to ride a two-wheel bike last Fourth of July," DeClark said. "We've been practicing riding and changing clothes and shoes for the transition. He's even got special bungey shoestrings so he doesn't have to tie them." For only being on a bike one year, 8-year-old Justin was among the top in his pack, placing fifth in his division. Some of the 85 kids in the race limped across the finish line or were helped off the course from exhaustion. But most still had fun trying. While siblings Madeline and Blaine Fulton, of South Bend, both earned second place in their divisions, their cousin, Hannah Klingler, 9, of Plymouth, Mich., didn't fare as well. "I didn't finish. I started hyperventilating and got pulled out of the race," she said giggling over the adventure. "At least I made some new friends with a few paramedics!"